Week 3 Events, Reflections, and College News

This week has flown by for me! Between work in the nursery and new developments in the college application process, there is much to tell!

My morning this week have been spent in the nursery readying beds to plant seeds, planting said seeds, sorting plants to be planted on farmers' properties next week, and organizing the seedlings on the nursery tables. Deivid, the nursery manager, has been out all week making holes to plant the seedlings in next week. He has gradually placed me in charge of the nursery when he is not there, and now I direct the other volunteers and delegate tasks. It is a strange feeling to be considered the "one in charge" by my fellow volunteers, especially since I am one of the youngest there. However, I feel as though I have adequately risen to the task. I also find it a little bit ironic to be doing nursery management here, because that is my dad's (Brian) job at home. I'm carrying on the Keeley family legacy!

On Wednesday afternoon, Anna and Nya and I went to the school in Belisario and taught an English lesson to the 6th grade class there. We asked their names (and asked them to respond in English), sang the alphabet song and then asked them to spell their names, learned body parts and played Simon Says, and named some colors in the room. They were a bit rowdy, but overall decently cooperative. It is interesting though because in Brazil children are not taught to raise their hand to speak, which makes keeping order in the classroom that much more difficult. We are hoping to go back again and teach them more about more environmental topics.

One thing that is interesting about being at Iracambi, especially for a longer period of time, is the constant coming and going of other volunteers. My roommate, Anna, is leaving tomorrow, and I will definitely miss her. Some people change the mood and types of conversations we have so much, simply with their presence.

A new girl, who will replace Anna as my roommate, is coming tomorrow. I am always so curious about new volunteers, because you can never know what they will be like in advance. We are given only their dates of arrival, their names, and their countries of origin. Tomorrow night there will be a new person sleeping above me whose name is Melanie who comes from England. I know nothing else.

I have come to notice a significant change in myself in terms of work ethic. Before I came to Iracambi, I was firmly caught in the feeling of needing to be as productive as possible, and if I was doing something that would be considered "unproductive", feeling guilty. It has only taken me three weeks here to let that feeling go, and now I am significantly more relaxed about doing work and not rushing through tasks. I also know that it is OK if I am 15 minutes late to breakfast or don't start work immediately after meals and work the entire time until the next meal. It is interesting, however, when a new volunteer arrives, because many of them bring with them this need to be doing something all of the time. I can observe them letting go of this feeling a little more every day, and it is a very neat thing to see.

I also have some exciting news in terms of colleges! On Wednesday evening I did an interview with a Stanford alum, which is an optional part of the application. The interviewer does not have access to any of my grades, test scores, or essays. He asked me about what I wanted to do, leadership experiences, as well as some interesting questions like "what research would I do/problem would I fix with a million dollars" and "if I were to teach a class, what subject would it be on and how would I teach it". I feel as though I did pretty well and only stumbled over my words and thoughts a few times. I hope it will reflect positively in my admission decision.

Last night, I woke up at 3:30 am and for some strange reason decided to check my email. I was beyond excited to see my first college acceptance email to Indiana University, as well as the chance to apply for a scholarship there!

This afternoon Carla, the old volunteer coordinator (before Rogeria), came up and gave a medicinal plants workshop. She left her position at Iracambi to pursue her study of medicinal plants full-time, and is a really amazing woman.

We took a hike on the medicinal plants trail and she showed us different plants and explained some of their properties. When we got back to the house, we gathered some amora (mulberry) berries and aloe vera to make soap with. Carla had brought all the rest of the ingredients, and within an hour we had a nice bar of soap cooling in the fridge. We also made some tea with lemon-leaves, and while we drank it Carla showed us some Reiki and explained the concepts to us. Overall, the afternoon was really pleasant and educational, and I am looking forward to possibly doing something similar with Carla sometime soon.

Here are some more fun pictures from this week!